Before you read any written meaning, look at the card for a full minute. Pamela Colman Smith drew every card of the Rider–Waite–Smith deck as a small scene, and the scene is the meaning in compressed form. A reader who can describe what is happening in a picture can read a card they have never studied.
Five things to look at
Who is there, and what are they doing? A figure walking away (the Eight of Cups) says something different from a figure planted on a throne (the Queen of Pentacles). Notice posture: open or closed, active or resting.
Which way are they facing? Many readers take facing left as looking to the past and facing right as moving into the future. It is a habit of reading rather than a law, but it often fits.
What is the weather and the colour? Clear yellow skies, grey storms and night scenes set the mood before anything else. The Three of Swords sits under rain; The Sun under a blazing sky.
What is the number? Even in a picture deck the number matters: Aces begin, Fives disrupt, Tens complete. Unit 3 covers this.
What detail catches your eye? The detail you notice first is often the one the reading is about. Write it down.
Then the written meaning
Only now read the card's meaning on its page. Compare it with what you saw. Where they agree, you have understood the card; where they differ, the written meaning shows you a layer you missed, or your own reading shows something personal that belongs in your notes.
